Two brothers share a dark legacy from their childhood

Published: Sunday, July 29, 2007

GILLIAN FLACCUSASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN DIEGO - The maintenance trailer outside St. Joachim's Elementary School in Costa Mesa looked harmless from the outside, but once the door slammed shut it was hell on earth for Joe and Paul Livingston.

Lured with doughnuts, candy and games of checkers, the boys were repeatedly molested over several years by the church janitor who lived inside.

The Livingstons, now in their early 40s, are among a handful of the 508 sexual abuse victims who reached a $660 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles last week who were not assaulted by Roman Catholic priests.

The Livingston boys were 6 and 7 when their mother sent them to Catholic school in the 1970s. She worked several jobs to pay tuition after their father left when Paul was two months old.

Joe, 11 months older, can still see the janitor's face and hands, and he remembers when the trailer door slammed in his face, leaving him standing outside with his little brother trapped inside.

"I remember feeling so bad because it was my younger brother and I couldn't do anything," he said. "I remember thinking 'God, all grown-ups, all old people, are like this.' Since then, I've been running scared."

The brothers, who now live in San Diego, both dropped out of high school and lived for years in a fog of alcohol, drugs and depression.

In 2004, they shared in a $100 million settlement against the Diocese of Orange. They were also plaintiffs in the suit against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which controlled Orange County parishes at the time.

The janitor, who was never arrested, died in 1985.

The brothers attend therapy, Alcoholic Anonymous meetings - sometimes three a day - and rely on a nonprofit group called the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests for emotional support.